At this time of year, Cliff and I issue our annual city-by-city winter snowfall predictions for Coeur d’Alene and other areas across the Inland Northwest.

As mentioned in a previous column, October is often a key month which often provides a preview of what type of weather pattern we can expect over the next few months. Cliff tells me that when we have a wet October, there’s often a snowier than normal winter in our part of the country.

Well, October of 2016 has certainly been eventful here in the Northwest. Not one, but two “rare” tornadoes hit the Oregon coastline on Friday, Oct. 14. One damaged several city blocks in the coastal town of Manzanita. Winds were estimated between 125 and 130 miles per hour, classifying that tornado as an EF2. The last time there were two tornadoes in northwestern Oregon was back on Nov. 12, 1991, when three twisters touched down.

As of last Friday, there have been 18 out of 21 days with measurable rainfall in Coeur d’Alene. Cliff tells me that is a record.

Last year, the winter of 2015-16 produced below average snowfall totals in most locations thanks to the warm, El Nino sea-surface temperature pattern in the waters of the Pacific Ocean. Last week, the cooler La Nina event was declared which is a good sign for those who yearn for the bigger snows. However, this La Nina appears to be weak, but new weather patterns are indeed pointing to a snowy winter season.

For the 2015-16 season, Cliff measured 56.2 inches of snowfall at his station. The normal is slightly less than 70 inches. Much of that snow fell last December as a whopping 37.2 inches fell in the last half of the month.

For these reasons, as well as other meteorological and climatological factors, we have increased our snowfall projections for the region by an additional 25 to 30 percent above normal for the fast approaching 2016-17 winter season, quite a change indeed from a year ago.

Here are the latest city-by city seasonal snowfall predictions, from the most to the least accumulations:

1. Area ski resorts should range from approximately 225-250 inches at Mt. Spokane to around 375-400 inches at both Lookout Pass and Montana’s Whitefish Mountain.

2. Priest Lake: 100 to 104 inches.

3. Spirit Lake: 98 to 102 inches.

4. Twin Lakes: 96 to 100 inches.

5. Rathdrum: 95 to 99 inches.

6. Sandpoint: 93 to 97 inches.

7. Wallace: 92 to 96 inches.

8. Kellogg (town): 91 to 95 inches.

9. Hayden Lake (above 2,400 feet): 90 to 94 inches.

10. Athol/Garwood: 89 to 93 inches.

11. Hayden (town): 88 to 92 inches.

12. NW Coeur d’Alene (Cliff’s station): 86 to 90 inches.

13. Dalton Gardens: 84 to 88 inches.

14. St. Maries: 82 to 86 inches.

15. Hope: 80 to 84 inches.

16. Kalispell, Mont.: 79 to 83 inches.

17. Coeur d’Alene (downtown near The Coeur d’Alene Resort): 78 to 82 inches.

18. Post Falls: 76 to 80 inches.

19. Harrison: 73 to 77 inches.

20. Missoula, Mont.: 70 to 74 inches.

21. Spokane (South Hill): 66 to 70 inches.

22. Spokane Valley: 65 to 69 inches.

23. Bayview: 63 to 67 inches.

24. Spokane International Airport: 62 to 66 inches.

As usual, we reserve the right to raise or lower these projections later this fall if we see major changes in sea-surface temperature or sunspot activity. Stay tuned ...

Contact Randy Mann at randy@longrangeweather.com